84 
STRANGE DWELLINGS . 
her way under a thick tuft of herbage, and remain quietly in 
the retired nook until she fancies that the danger has passed 
away. 
When, however, she has suited herself with a locality, she 
scrapes away the ground quickly, and when she has dug to a 
sufficient depth, she scoops out a small cavity or chamber, and 
therein constructs her first nest. There are but few cells at the 
beginning of the year, and these contain the first workers, who 
are intended to assist in constructing the enlarged nest. The 
larvae are large, fat, white, round-bodied creatures, with little 
horny heads, and their bodies always slightly curved. When 
they have completed their feeding, each spins for itself an oval i 
cocoon of coarse silk, rather irregular in shape, very soft, tough, ij 
and thick in consistency. 
Herein they remain until they have attained their perfect ! 
state, when they gnaw a round piece from one end of the 
cocoon, just as a chicken chips off the top of the egg, and 
emerge into the nest. They do not venture out into the air for 
several days, the thick hair with which they are covered being 
all matted together, their wings' soft and crumpled, and their 
limbs scarcely able to bear them. Two or three days are gene- 
rally passed in the nest, and not until having gained their full 
strength do they venture out into the wide world. None but 
worker bees are developed for the first part of the year, the I 
females and males not making their appearance until the summer 
weather has set in. 
As may be seen from the illustration, the cells of the Humble 1 
Bee are not arranged in regular rows, like those of the hive ! 
bee, but are set carelessly side by side, mostly fixed together in 
groups of greater or lesser dimensions. Now and then a very ij 
little group of two or three cells is found, and single cells are 
occasionally to be seen, detached from the general mass. 
The right-hand nest in the illustration is that of the Red- 
tipped Humble Bee of Shakspere, known as the Lapidary Bee j 
{Bombus lapidarius ), which derives its specific name from its 
habit of making its nest within heaps of stone. This beautiful 
